MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

11/12 Cubs to work out Cuban star Cespedes

If you haven’t heard of Yoenis Cespedes, you will soon. The Cubs will have a private workout with the 26-year-old outfielder, who is considered to be the best player in a generation to come out of Cuba. The Cubs will have plenty of competition if they decide to pursue the five-tool outfielder. The Red Sox, Phillies, Indians, Blue Jays, Pirates, Rangers, Tigers, Nationals, Athletics, Marlins and Yankees are reportedly interested in him as well, and he worked out for the Marlins front office on Thursday. Cespedes (pronounced SES-peh-des) played on the national Cuban team and was currently training in the Dominican Republic. A right-handed hitter, he is Cuba’s single-season home run leader, hitting 33 this year. He broke the record with a grand slam. Cespedes would have to negotiate a series of visa processes before he could be declared a free agent. His asking price was expected to rival the $30 million Cuban pitcher Aroldis Chapman signed with the Reds.

If more speed, better defense and athleticism is what the Cubs want, signing Cespedes is a great start. Send Soriano To Boston for Carl Crawford’s albatross contract.
LF Crawford CF Cespedes RF BJAckson
That improves your defense, speed on the bases and greatly helps out your pitching staff right there.
Sign AP or PF to play 1B and get ready for Spring Training.

Byrd would become (and should already be…) a valuable fourth outfielder instead of a “might as well sign him, he’s servicable” every day outfielder like Hendry did. Whatever it takes to rid Soriano would be beneficial to improving the wins total even though it would not be beneficial to the team’s finances. Who cares if we receive anybody for Soriano? Just releasing him and opening up a spot would be great. Us fans have so many ways to improve the team…on somebody else’s dime…but even us novice GM’s wouldn’t have dug such a big hole has Hendry…right? Remember it was Hendry that just cost the Cubs a rotation spot at 14 mil because he thought Dempster was an ACE. 14 mil, yeesh.

Thinking the Red Sox would trade Crawford for Soriano is ludicrous. Crawford has had one down year and will be expected to, and given the opportunity to rebound before being traded. However, I do think there’s a real possibility that if the Cubs offered Soriano for Lackey, the Red Sox would have to listen. Bad contract for bad contract, a fresh start for Lackey, a place where Soriano’s fly balls to left and left center could bang off the monster instead of being caught, and a free spot in the outfield for someone like Brett Jackson. I also think signing Pujols or Fielder is a bad option, especially with an in-house option like LaHair, who should be given a chance. Nothing can turn around a team like pitching, so going after a guy like CJ Wilson, or signing extremely incentive-based contracts with guys like Roy Oswalt or Mark Buehrle, and then having Lackey as a 4th or 5th starter makes way more sense to me than going after a bat. The one position to possibly look for a big bat, and possibly a veteran presence, possibly through a trade, would be third base. The outfield will be just fine with more speed and much, much, much better defense without Soriano.

I’m not talking about rebuilding just for next year, I’m talking about the future. Anyone who thinks the Cubs are going winning a World Series in 2012 has too high of expectations, though it is always important to have that goal. I’m simply saying a Soriano for Lackey deal would rid us of one problem now, create an opening for one of our youngsters in the outfield for THIS year, vastly improve our defense, greatly reduce our payroll AND present an opportunity for better pitching in the future (most likely 2013 for Lackey, though others have been coming back much faster these days).
The fact that Lackey will be out for 2012 makes it all the more likely the Red Sox would be willing to pick up a lot more of Soriano’s contract, which would be tough to find anywhere else. And who knows, some pitchers come back even better than they ever were after Tommy John surgery, and a move from the AL East to the NL would improve just about any pitcher. I’m simply saying I don’t believe Soriano would be more of a benefit to our team over the 3 years of his contract than Lackey would be over the final 4 years of his. I say 4 years because MOST importantly, Lackey’s surgery triggered a clause in his contract for a club option for 2015 at the MAJOR LEAGUE MINIMUM. Now that’s what I call a bargain.

Easy buddy, we’re rooting for the same team. No one’s “wrong” for having their own opinion, no reason to act like a jerk just because you have a different outlook. I respect your view of the situation, I just see it differently.

I agree with Shea. Soriano for a damaged Lackey, just like giving Zambrano ONE MORE shot sounds just as logical as keeping a defensive butcher like Soriano in LF despite the number of homeruns he MAY hit as he ages, falls apar and turns d. So it would like trading damaged goods for damaged goods and opens up an outfield spot for and ACTUAL OUTFIELDER. Also, why is Dempster excused from being “ragged” on? He’s as over-rated and over paid as other Hendry signings. I’m not saying he is BAD, I am saying he certainly isn’t a stud and belongs at the bottom of the rotation an a GOOD team.

Sorry, meant to type “turning doubles into singles with his blazing speed and all out hustle” Listen, I get there are fans that would prefer Soriano and his one-dimensional ability of hitting 20-30 home runs in his twilight years rather than have an outfielder that can get on base, hustle, catch a flyball and take the proper route when going after base hits…to all those fans I say: If we do keep Soriano, I hope he does well and go Cubs! We are all fans of the same team with the same goal, just different opinions on how to acheive that goal.

Well the Cubs just unloaded a bunch of money trading away Big Z, now Theo has to go cough up the $$$$$ and get this guy. Without a maor signing or two before April 2012, I will just save money by not subscribing to MLB.COM to see the 2012 Cubs.

At the very least it is nice to know Epstein would even consider signing Cespedes which means he would be forced to open up an outfield spot. With DeJesus being one of Epstein’s guys in RF that would leave the woeful Soriano or the average Byrd in jeapordy.
A long process of recovery is being instituted by Epstein. Ricketts did a great thing by knocking down the Hendry domino allowing all the other dominos to now fall in place.

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